Making sure that your business is adequately listed online is one of the most important things you can do after getting up and running. If any of you are like me, the first thing I like to do before visiting a new restaurant or business is to check out their website, just to see the menu or check out a little bit about what services and/or products they offer. If the business isn’t at least listed on common sites such as Yelp, Urbanspoon, YP.com, Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. it may make customers skeptical of whether or not the business is still in operation. Getting listed may sound like a daunting task, but there are resources out there to help small businesses with their online listings. Moz Local, formerly GetListed.org, is one of those resources. Their primary offering is an easy-to-use, online tool that makes the process of claiming business listings at Google, Foursquare, Facebook, Yelp, Bing, YP, Yahoo and other prominent local search engines more efficient. [Read more…]

So you’ve done it, you’ve reached that goal that every entrepreneur chases when dreaming up their own big business idea. You have created, opened, and run a successful business. What now? Do you keep it? Maybe if you truly enjoy the work. What if you’re looking for a new challenge or have another idea you think would make a great business? If your business is successful enough, you may want to look into selling it. Selling a business can be technically and emotionally complicated. Since each business is different, it’s likely that different resources will be involved in the sale depending on the industry, size, etc. In an article for Inc.com, bizbuysell.com’s Mike Handelsman looks at some general resources that can help you during the process of selling your business: [Read more…]

Big data is a term that describes the huge amounts of data that are being created every day from people all over the world using technology. According to IBM, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated daily and 90 percent of the total data in existence was created within the last two years. Using data to improve business processes is nothing new. However, using big data is a whole new ball game. In an article on smallbiztrends.com, Curt Finch examines why small businesses should pay attention to big data. [Read more…]

Small businesses owners entering the growth stage are often challenged to develop effective strategies to motivate and encourage innovation among employees. Creating a work environment that allows employees not only to fulfill their required duties, but also to develop strategies that can help a business grow faster through outside-the-box thinking is key to success. How can you develop a culture and atmosphere that encourages and motivates employees? [Read more…]

The internet is constantly changing the way we do things, everything from communicating with friends to shopping for groceries. Of course, we all know how much the internet is changing the way people do business. While the internet can make doing business easier, there are security issues that small business owners and entrepreneurs should be aware of when operating online. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released the Internet Security Essentials for Business guide. The guide emphasizes the following points: [Read more…]

When we were young our parents taught us to work together and share. Later on in life we get out into that big, bad, business world, and all those cooperation skills we learned as children start to fall to the wayside. We’re told that it’s a “dog-eat-dog” world out there, and to some it may be. But it doesn’t have to be that way for everyone. In fact, many young entrepreneurs are finding that cooperation can pay off, and for most, it in fact saves on business costs. [Read more…]

Everyone knows how much of an effect social media can have on how your customers view your brand, company, employees, etc. We all know how important it is to have a Facebook and LinkedIn page, a Twitter account, a blog, etc. and keep it updated. But, what’s the best way to craft these social media messages? In the article “Secrets to a Perfectly Crafted Social Media Post” on inc.com, Jeff Haden gives some tips and tricks for getting the most out of the content you post on social media. [Read more…]

We never know when a disaster is going to hit. Whether it is a blizzard burying Alaska, a hurricane drowning South Carolina, or a wildfire taking out buildings in California, disaster can strike without any warning. In today’s tech-savvy world, even a power outage or computer crash could leave your business in trouble. Just as it’s important to have a disaster plan for your home and family, it is also important to have a disaster plan for your business to protect all you’ve worked hard to achieve. Help minimize the risk for your business by preparing for the worst. Such websites as the SBA and Ready Business supply ample information on how to best prepare for an unknown threat. Here is the Wall Street Journal’s take on three ways you can best prepare to protect your business, should disaster strike: [Read more…]

The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group (ACCG) is dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs throughout Arkansas succeed. Arkansas artists are certainly entrepreneurs. In 2013, ACCG began showcasing the work of Arkansas artists in our offices and began hosting open houses open to the public to help support the artists, as well as provide our community of staff, clients and visitors with a chance to be inspired by the art and be able to network at our offices as part of downtown Little Rock’s 2nd Friday Art Night. We are continuing that successful public-artist venture with the June 12th Friday Art Night with works by Diane Harper, Dominique Simmons and Barbara Satterfield in a show titled “Southern Curiosities”. Robert Bean is the show curator.

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Arkansas Capital Corporation is a donation location for THV 11’s Summer Cereal Drive to benefit the Arkansas Foodbank! Guests are encouraged to donate dry cereal (8oz or more, boxed or bagged), breakfast bars, pop tarts, oatmeal, cream of wheat at the offices of Arkansas Capital Corporation during 2nd Friday Art Night, June 12 from 5 to 8 pm. THV11’s “This Morning” and the Arkansas Foodbank have been teaming up every summer since 2000 to help those in the Foodbank’s 33-county service area have food to eat for breakfast. Since it started in 2000, more than one million boxes of cereal and other breakfast items have been collected and distributed to food pantries and feeding sites. The cereal drive is a friendly competition to see which business, organization and community can donate the most cereal during a four-week period. Help us help the Foodbank feed those in Arkansas that need help this summer!

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  Whether you are interested in learning more about the many lending products or just need a little visual inspiration, please stop by our offices Friday, June 12 from 5-8 p.m. Light hors d’oeuvres and drinks will be served. The artists will all be at the event to discuss their work, and all work is for sale with proceeds directly benefiting the artist. Our offices are located at 200 River Market, Avenue, Suite 400, Little Rock, AR 72201. Two nearby parking decks, as well as street parking are available. We are at Trolley Stop 10. Additional details about the trolley are available here. [Read more…]

Financial planning is an often dreaded step of starting a business, but it is necessary to start and grow your business. With such a wide variety of financing options from federal, state, and local governments, searching for the applicable ones can prove to be, well, overwhelming. Some examples of funding programs include low-interest loans, venture capital, and scientific and economic development grants. Before you get ahead of yourself applying for these grants and loans, make sure you have your finances in order. It is essential to know the details of your upcoming expenditures, including start-up costs and break-even point for your business. The U.S. Small Business Administration provides a great deal of assistance in sorting through the details of financing your business. They even highlight what sorts of details banks assess when distributing loans. [Read more…]

Here’s the fatal flaw in the retirement plan of many small business owners: after pouring a lifetime of sweat, time and capital into building their businesses, their rough-sketch exit strategy is to sell out someday for a ton of money—and then settle back and enjoy a financially secure retirement. Many business owners are so sure this will happen that they don’t bother to make any other retirement plans. And that’s a big mistake. Why? It’s an undependable fantasy that depends on a magical person who, at just the right moment, swoops in with cash in hand to buy your company–and pay a fair price. The reality: for thousands of small business owners each year, no one steps forward. Perhaps your business is too specialized or is tied too closely to the owner’s unique personality and skills. Or perhaps possible buyers equate retirement sale with distress sale and make only low-ball offers. [Read more…]

Small businesses come in all shapes and sizes and setup in all kinds of locations. If you don’t have a physical location for your business, it’s important to be able to take mobile payments. With the advances in technology, small businesses can now accept payments over all kinds of devices like tablets, cell phones, etc. making it extremely easy to sell your products from pretty much anywhere you have cell service or an internet connection. In an article for Inc.com, “Which Mobile Payment Service Is Best for Your Business?”, Maeghan Ouimet compares six top contenders in the industry giving you information on each so that you can make the decision on which would be suit your business’s needs. In this post we will look at a couple of the top contenders. [Read more…]